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November 2007

So you've ranted and raved here over the past three years about a wide variety of topics. It's been good...real good. And a large portion of text here has been dedicated towards downtown Spokane with all it's wins and losses.

Well tonight is your chance to give some input that might translate into action as the City of Spokane looks to be updating it's plan for downtown. Bring all your ideas no matter how outlandish. Think a gondola should connect Browne's Addition to the future Kendall Yards? Throw it out there. It's only three hours people so show some love for your city. Opportunities like this don't come around very often, and there'll be loads of free parking. :^p

What to do with an old convalescent home on the lower South Hill? How about some affordable condos? Community Frameworks, an affordable housing developer, is bringing the vacant 1950s structure kicking and screaming into the current century with a complete remake. Renderings of the building at 424 W. 7th Ave. show ample glass, more windows, and balconies to take advantage of the view north towards downtown. Four floors with what looks like 6-7 units per. The two bed one bath listed is asking $206K, while the 1 bed-1 bath is seen wanting $152K. Lower South has a pulse people.

A disgruntled but dedicated monthly customer of Diamond Parking figures he's spent more than $4,000 on Diamond Parking over the past eight years. Apparently Diamond has more than doubled their month parking rates. He let it fly on a Craigslist rant:

"I want to give a big shout-out of thanks to our friends at Diamond
Parking. Not only do I get the privilege of paying my buddies $51.00
per month to go to work everyday, they were awesome enough to increase
the monthly parking rate to $114.00! Wooooo! Just found this out today
and they are fabulous enough to start the increase beginning January
2008. I love it. What fantastic friends I've had since April 2001.
That's how long I've been paying them $51.00 per month - our completely
sweet friendship has cost me approximately $4,080 over the past almost
8 years. Since I'm good at my job and I don't plan on being fired or
quitting anytime soon, Diamond Buddy now wants me to pay approximately
$9,120 for the assumed 80 months into the future that I will be still
working at my job. Nice! I can't wait! The extra $5,040 that I'll be
paying them is kinda like a tip to them for being such kick ass friends
and letting me park my car on their pavement. January 2008 is just not arriving soon enough."

Following up last week's walk down memory lane we again take you back to the early 70's in downtown Spokane. New to the scene were urban high-rise apartments that much like today's condos were expected to make urban living appealing again. Only then, developers were going seriously vertical and making some dramatic changes to the Spokane skyline. Notable projects included the 20-story Park Tower Apartments, the 16-story Cathedral Plaza, the 11-story Chateau, and finally the 16-story Riverfalls Tower Phase I.

The photo above taken from a 1970's periodical shows the existing Riverfalls Tower Phase I, and next to it the proposed Riverfalls Phase II that to this day has yet to break ground. At the time Phase II was to have 60 garden apartments each with a view. Quite possibly this was just a conceptual model, just like this one we mentioned earlier. Both designed by Warren Heylman and both very different in form. Phase II makes us think: If Bob Newhart were filming a sitcom in Spokane in the early 70's...

It's damn cold out today and that means that Ice-skating is underway downtown, but you wouldn't know it by looking. That's because the ice-rink is buried in the middle of Riverfront Park a full three blocks away from any of the action downtown near Riverpark Square. That's too bad, because during the winter months nothing attracts people like outdoor ice-skating (both participants and observers). Seriously.

Public spaces during the winter have an entirely different way about them, and if they're accessible and visible by the public they can dramatically improve the street life. But did you know that the original plan for Riverfront Park called for
the ice-rink to be located in a different location?

The beautification? of the Bernard Street Wall continues as Bucky Fuller's dominance of the wheatpastie scene on the lower South Hill came to an end this week. As of last weekend the image of a large hippy girl is now gracing the wall. At first glance we feared Hope Sandoval, but on closer inspection we - have - absolutely - no - idea - who - this - is. A call out to the Rainbo Collective, please help in the comments section below.

Oh what a difference two years makes. Last week the Center for Responsible Lending (CPL) released an analysis of the ripple effects of forclosures on surrounding properties and communities overall. As usual, we pulled out the data speaking to our neck-o-the-woods and compared it to others in the region.

Think downtown hasn't changed in the last 50 years? Today we take a look at a few city blocks that made some headlines this week. Armed with only a scanner, old maps, and Photoshop we went to work splicing and dicing the above aerial photos. They show two dramatically different views of the blocks between Spokane Falls Blvd and Main from Howard to Browne. The photo on the left is obviously current day 2007. Lots of ashpalt dedicated to the temporary storage of cars and few buildings. The photo on the right shows the same view but with an overlay of building footprints from 1952. All colored areas represent buildings with most being multiple stories and almost all brick.

Parking rates downtown increased yesterday. Rates to store your car on the street for 90 minutes increased from $1 to $1.20. Car storage for 2 hours will set you back a whopping $1.50 [Gasp!]. As far as we can tell, shoppers were still showing up yesterday and no businesses have shuttered their doors...yet. We'll be following this issue closely because, well, we must protect the god-given right to park for free and as close to our destination as is possible.

In all seriousness, the short video above offers an excellent interview on why charging an appropriate fee for parking is in everyone's interest. The interview is with Dr. Donald Shoup the probably the foremost authority on the economics of parking. A quote to ponder: "You have expensive housing for people and free parking for cars. You've got your priorities exactly the wrong way around." Fast forward to 3:23 and you'll hear the key reason for charging people to pay for car storage.

Well friends the 2007 RICHARD A. GRIESBACH EXCELLENCE IN AIRPORT CONCESSIONS CONTEST passed with nary a mention last week in the local news. The contest appears to be big in airport circles however as it strives to, "recognize the best and brightest in airport retail, food & beverage and overall concessions." We know you're intrigued. How did we fare?

Spokane pretty much kicked ass this year as we dominated the small airports category bringing home three (count 'em) awards across multiple categories. These included:

Best Specialty Retail Program in North America

Best Convenience Retail Program in North Americaand last but not least...

Best Food and Beverage Program in North America

Seattle-Tacoma took top spot winning the overall concessions contest. DAMN YOU SEA-TAC! We've yet to make it out there for a look, but after the remodel and with these awards there has to be a dramatic improvement. So this holiday season when you're considering all you have to be thankful for at the terminal waiting for your delayed flight to begin boarding, explore the bounty that is Spokane International Airport Concessions.